The Secret To Spending Time Alone

This Is One Of The Best Reasons To Spend Time Alone We've Ever Heard

Some people hate being alone. Some people love it. Lucie Fink is kind of in between.

After our resident lifestyle guinea pig resolved to spend more time solo, she quickly realized that to be present with herself, she'd need to ditch distractions such as a book or her phone. To test the waters of public alone time in a culture that often seems to look down on it, Fink challenged herself to eat out, visit a museum, and go to a movie (a scary one, too, her least favorite kind) without these distractions — and she was happy she did.

"I didn't necessarily love being by myself all the time," she admits in our video on her experiment, above, but she's more convinced than before that spending time alone can "give yourself the opportunity to enjoy your own company."

It can also, Fink shares, give you the opportunity to enjoy your own food. Perhaps the highlight of Fink's excursions was her solo meal (a triple-decker chicken-bacon sandwich, chips, and an iced tea).

"My sense of taste was explosive," she enthuses. "When you go out to a meal alone, you don't have that whole side of your brain operating you that's telling you to be social and keep up the conversation. Instead your brain is focusing on one thing, and one thing only — two things: chicken and bacon."